


Nothing Safe Is Worth The Drive

by PigSlay



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety Induced Decisions, Crush at First Sight, Famous Liam, Internet Friends to Real Life Friends, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Non-Famous Harry, POV Multiple, Sex Mentions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 18:11:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13863135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PigSlay/pseuds/PigSlay
Summary: (Originally posted for the Lirry fic exchange on 4/15/17)Harry is a massive fan of singer/songwriter Liam. His friends think he's got a bit of a crush. He also works in a coffee shop to pay for his studies. Enter Liam. He just wants some darn coffee. It’s way too early and he’s tired. He’s not prepared for Harry’s curls or dimples. At all.





	1. When you're looking like this, I just can't resist

**Author's Note:**

  * For [definitelynotafan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/definitelynotafan/gifts).



> (As I said in the description, this was originally posted for the Lirry fic exchange last year, but since the admin never revealed the authors, I thought I'd reveal myself by going ahead and re-posting it...)
> 
> I don't know One Direction. Thank you to Janee. You are always encouraging me and always believe in me even when I don't. I love you so much.
> 
> Thank you to the mods for granting me an extension - and for putting on this exchange in the first place. I hope you know how much I truly appreciate you.
> 
> To the person receiving this fic - I'm not sure how you feel about the Fifth Harmony girls, but I hope you don't mind me making two of them (Camila and Dinah) Harry's (girl) besties. I hope, even if you don't like 5H, you're still able to enjoy this fic and the way he interacts with the two of them. :) Also, I'm not sure if you read all the tags (I put a lot, I'm sorry) BUT this fic DOES switch POV between the two boys. So I hope you don't mind that.
> 
> I'm always open to constructive criticism, by the way. Thank you and I hope you enjoy. <3
> 
> Oh and also: My characters don't assume the genders of strangers, so that's the explanation for the use of singular "they" for people the character doesn't know. And I know that Skype doesn't do group chats with three people, but just pretend for the sake of this fic okay?

**Harry**

“Harry can you turn that music down yeah?! I’m trying to get some studying done, can’t concentrate!” Zayn, Harry’s roommate, yells.

“No!” Harry yells back. “Liam’s new album just came out Zayn! There will be no turning this down for the next… year!” He thinks he hears Zayn grumble, but he ignores him. His only priority right now is listening to Liam’s new album, taking every single lyric in.

He knows, realistically, that he should be studying too – his biology teacher has “pop” quizzes every Thursday, which is tomorrow. But Liam released a surprise album just now and any chance of Harry getting any studying done has now gone out the window.

He logs into Skype to chat with his fellow Liamaniacs (a term he and his friends made up a while ago to describe themselves, since they realized one day that Liam hadn’t given his fans an official name yet).

‘OH MY GOSH!’, he writes in the group chat. ‘ARE YOU GUYS LISTENING TO THE NEW ALBUM? THE SONG “YOU” IS MY FAVORITE SO FAR BUT THEY’RE ALL SO GREAT!’

**_DJane97:_  ** _Bruh. What do you mean ARE we listening? Lol of course we are. What do you take us for?_

**_WalzMila:_  ** _You’re so late, H. But better late than never. ISN’T IT SO BEAUTIFUL THOUGH? OH MY GOSH I’M NOT BREATHING HE’S SO TALENTED._

‘OMG THE SONG THAT JUST CAME ON,’ Harry types, entering a keyboard smash to properly describe his emotions. ‘HIS VOIIICE.’ A loud inhuman squeal escapes his mouth before he can stop it, and he thinks he hears Zayn snort in the other room.

It continues like that for about an hour; after Harry’s first rotation of the album is over, he and his friends all discuss their favorite songs from the album. They then eventually digress into discussing Liam in general, from his eyes to his voice to his muscles.

Once Harry’s starting his third play of the album though, things start to simmer down.

**_DJane97:_  ** _Alright y’all, I gotta hit the hay. See ya later, H. Walz._

**_HarryPayne:_  ** _Bye Dinah._

**_WalzMila:_  ** _I’m gonna head off too, I think. Gotta get a good night’s rest for when I fail my test tomorrow._

**_HarryPayne:_  ** _Haha , I feel you there. Goodnight Camila .xx_

**_WalzMila:_  ** _Goodnight Harry._

Just then, Harry hears a throat clearing. He turns around and sees Zayn by the door, eyebags in full view. He looks like he has something to say. Harry turns the volume down just a little bit, motioning for Zayn to come in.

“So like, are you gonna play that all night long or something?” Zayn asks, not sounding very pleased.

Harry blushes, sitting up so there’s a space for Zayn to sit down next to him. “Maybe… It’s so good though Zayn. He’s so talented and he’s grown so much since the first album and-”

Zayn puts his hands over Harry’s mouth, giggling. “Yes Harry I know. It is a great album – I could tell by how much you’ve been squealing for the past couple hours.” Harry feels his cheeks turn red and Zayn removes his hands from his mouth.

Harry frowns and turns the music down low for a little bit (but not so low that he can’t hear it, of course). “I know you think I’m weird.”

Zayn considers this for a minute. “No – well, okay yeah you kind of are.” He laughs, so Harry laughs too, giving him a slight punch. “But I mean, I’m weird too, so we’re even.” The two boys smile at each other for a moment.

“However, I’m so weird that I’m a college student who would like to go to bed before 1 AM. So, you can continue being the fanboy that you are over Mr. Payne, but just… quietly please.” Zayn grins, but Harry can also see how serious he is about this.

“Okay,” he nods. “I will. I’m sorry.” Zayn hugs him and gets up, starting to leave. “Goodnight Zayn.”

“Goodnight Harry,” he replies. “Make sure not to cream yourself too hard.” He closes the door before Harry can work up a proper reply.

Harry shakes his head. He loves his roommate so much, and no matter how much Zayn may tease him, he knows he loves him too. That is, after all, one of the reasons they’ve been friends for about twelve years now. The other reason is that Zayn knows too many embarrassing things Harry did as a child, so he’s not allowed to leave him now.

Harry keeps listening to Liam’s album on repeat for the rest of the night, eventually plugging headphones into his computer to be extra sure he won’t wake Zayn up. He actually does end up getting some studying done, albeit not as much as he probably should. He falls asleep with Liam’s album still on replay, the smooth R&B vocals soothing him to sleep as he prays that he can hopefully scrape by on the test tomorrow and not fail like he is afraid he will…

***

“Well, well, well, look who it is!” Louis announces as Harry walks into the coffee shop he works at. Harry walks over to the register, wanting to order some coffee himself before his shift starts. “Let me guess, someone was up late last night again listening to his boo’s new album.” Louis makes kissy noises, drawing attention from several customers.

Harry blushes. “Louis, can I please just have some black coffee?” He hands over his custom mug.

“Of course, of course.” Louis takes inventory on Harry’s order, and it takes a minute at most for him to have Harry’s order hot and ready.

“Thanks,” Harry responds, sitting down on one of the chairs nearby and setting an alarm on his phone so he knows when to clock in.

If he thought he was going to get some relaxing in before his shift started, he was wrong. Louis walks over to him, making that annoying face that he makes when he’s about to tease him. “Sooo, how many times did you nut to your hubby’s album last night?”

Harry chokes on the coffee. “Louis! This is a family café!”

“So what? It’s 6 AM, Harry, no parent is going to take their child in for coffee at this hour.” Louis rolls his eyes, then returns his face to the expression it was before. “Now, answer the question.”

“Ah,” Harry says, taking an appreciative sip of the coffee and ignoring Louis. “That is some delicious Jo.”

“Louis, what are you doing?” Their boss, Normani, steps in.

“I was just asking Harry about his hubby’s newest album,” Louis defends.

Normani smirks. “Well Louis if you want to know so much about his new album, you could always look it up yourself online.” Harry snickers at that; Normani rarely gets snarky with her employees, but when she does it’s amazing. “Now, please go and take that customer’s order and let Harry have some time to himself before he starts the work day.”

“Oh sh-” Louis practically runs back over to the counter to get the customer’s order.

Harry laughs once he’s gone, then turns to Normani. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” she assures him. “Now finish up, you only have a few more minutes until your shift starts.”

Harry raises his mug to her as a way of saying “yes ma’am” and continues drinking it.

When his timer goes off, he’s finished all but a little bit of his coffee and is ready for the day. He puts his mug and other stuff in the back and clocks in, ready to start the day at the best job ever.

Everything is going great; he’s making the black coffee, stocking the backroom, and making sure all the pastries are in order. Everything is going great, until Louis calls on him to take this customer’s order.

Harry doesn’t understand why Louis can’t take the customer’s order himself. Does he have to go to the bathroom or something? Still, not one to deny his co-workers anything when they need help, he starts walking up to the register. As soon as he sees the customer’s face, he freezes.

 

**Liam**

It’s 6:30 AM and all Liam wants is some darn coffee. He’s tired and jet-lagged, having just got off the plane a few minutes ago. He has so much to do today and he really doesn’t have time for messing around.

He doesn’t understand why the person at this café – Louis, the nametag said – had to ask for someone else to take his order. He saw Louis take the order of two customers before him. But whatever.

After a few minutes of waiting for the next person to come up and take his order though, he starts getting impatient. How long can it take for one employee to come and take his order?

“This is just getting ridiculous,” Liam mutters, but he hopes he still says it loud enough for the employees to hear. “I have to be at the studio in like half an hour and-”

Right at that moment, a new person – with a nametag that says Harry – appears in front of the register. Liam’s heart skips a beat when he looks Harry up and down – curls, dimples, cheeks – Liam is awestruck by how beautiful Harry is.

Suddenly Liam doesn’t even feel that tired anymore. He’s not sure he needs the coffee; Harry’s beauty has woken him up.

“H-h-hi,” Harry says, stuttering. “Umm… Can I take your order?” Harry’s face is a little bit freaked out, but that doesn’t stop Liam from staring into those wide eyes; green as fresh grass.

“Umm… Yes,” Liam responds, composing himself. “I would like a large caramel macchiato please. My name is L-”

“That’s okay,” Harry interrupts, laughing awkwardly and blushing. “I already know your name. Umm… I mean, I’ll have it right out!” Harry stumbles upon picking up the cup and writing down Liam’s order.

Liam giggles a tiny bit, finding Harry’s clumsiness endearing. As he’s leaving the line, he thinks he sees Harry taking a picture of the cup through his peripherals but he isn’t quite sure.

Liam sits down at a table with his body guard Paddy, and his co-producer, Niall, next to him. He watches Harry taking other customers’ orders until Louis comes back and tells Harry to make that caramel macchiato.

Getting lost in watching what Harry’s doing, he almost doesn’t hear when Niall coughs in his direction.

“You alright mate?” Liam asks, turning around to face Niall.

Niall shares a knowing look with Paddy. “Bro the question is are  _you_  alright?”

“Huh?” Liam questions, getting more and more confused by the second.

Niall laughs at Liam’s confusion, which, ironically, only makes him more confused. “You have been making the most obvious heart eyes at that person all day.”

“‘All day’?” Liam mocks. “We’ve only been here for a few minutes…”

“Yeah, and apparently those few minutes were enough for you to fall head over heels for someone who can barely string a sentence together.” Niall shakes his head. “Liam, honestly you’re ridiculous. You literally just met – no, not even met, you ordered a coffee. And besides, from the way this person stumbled and almost fell, they’re probably a fan.”

“So?” Liam asks. “Look at those dimples, Niall. How can you not find that adorable?”

Before they can continue, Harry is walking towards them. Liam feels his heartbeat pumping super quickly. Harry smiles at them, hands trembling while handing Liam his coffee.

“Sorry about the delay. I – uh, I spilled it a few times by accident.” Awkward laughter. “So like… Yeah enjoy your coffee.”

Harry starts walking back over to the preparation area, but Liam grabs their arm. “Wait. Do you have a minute to talk? It’s not that busy right now.”

Harry seems to look over at the people behind the preparation area for approval. They all give a big thumbs ups, with the one named Louis snickering a tiny bit.

“Uh… Sure. Yeah, yeah I can do that.” Harry napes at their neck. “Wh-what do you want to talk about?”

Liam can hear Niall and Paddy laughing beside him, but he ignores them, pinching Niall at the side and grinning when he hears him say “ouch”.

“Well first,” Liam starts. “This caramel macchiato is amazing. Probably the best one I’ve ever had.”

Harry smiles widely, like that’s the nicest compliment anyone could ever give. “Thank you. I learned from the best.”

Liam nods. “So how long have you been working here? Do you like it?”

“I’ve been working here for about two years now,” Harry tells him. “I do like it; I work with a lot of great people. And it helps me pay for my studies, so that’s nice too.” Pause. “Do you, uh, you know, like your job?” Niall chuckles, although Liam is not sure what’s so funny about that question.

“Definitely,” Liam answers. “I work with great people too…” he turns to Niall and glares. “…Sometimes.” He turns back to Harry. “That’s so cool that you are going to Uni. I’ve always wanted to go to Uni. What are you studying?”

They talk like that for several minutes – over time Harry looks and sounds less and less freaked out, which Liam is happy about.

However, the life of a popstar is a busy one, and no matter how much Liam wants to keep talking to Harry, eventually he has to go.

“Oh my gosh is it really almost seven already?” Liam asks, looking at his phone. He turns to Niall, glaring. “Niall, why didn’t you tell me?!”

Niall puts his hands up as if surrendering. He looks like he’s about to say something, but Liam doesn’t want to hear it.

He turns back to Harry. “I’m sorry, I have to go. But thank you so much for the coffee and the talk. Hope you have a good day.”

“I definitely will,” Harry responds. “Same to you. Bye.”

Waving, Liam, Niall, and Paddy all walk out the door. As soon as they’re in the car, Niall immediately starts laughing long and loud.

“Oh my gosh, Liam,” he says. “You are so in love with that fanboy.”

“No I’m not,” Liam tries. “You can’t be in love with someone you just met.”

“Fine, fine,” Niall responds, still laughing. “Then you at least have a terrible crush on him.” Liam blushes because he can’t deny that.

“Well,” he struggles to find the words. “So what if I do? Why should it matter if he’s a fanboy or not? He’s beautiful, nice, and makes great coffee. He’s the complete package.”

Niall shakes his head.

“You’re an artist,” Paddy chimes in. “Constantly touring. He’s a Uni student, staying in the same place day by day. You may see him again one night when you are touring in the front row, but that’s it love. So it’s best to not get attached.”

Liam frowns. Even though Paddy’s words are cruel, he knows they’re true. He sighs, staring out the window and picturing Harry’s face over and over again. He really hopes this isn’t the last time he sees him…

 

**Harry**

**_WalzMila:_  ** _OMGGGG I STILL can’t believe this. You’re my hero, you know that Harry? Well, I mean, after Liam you’re my hero._

**_DJane97:_  ** _SAME DAWG._

It’s been hours, and they’ve basically been saying the same things back and forth to each other for a while now, but do you think that’s going to stop them? Heck no.

Usually when Harry gets home after a day of work, he collapses on the bed and takes a power nap before his class starts. Today though, he couldn’t go to sleep. He was too awake. So he went into Zayn’s room and basically talked his head off for about forty-five minutes. It’s a wonder Zayn didn’t slap him.

He waited until school was completely over for the day before Skyping with Dinah and Camila. It didn’t matter that it had been nearly eleven hours since it happened, Harry was still full of energy.

**_WalzMila:_  ** _DO YOU REALIZE HOW HARD I SCREAMED WHEN YOU SENT ME THE PICTURE OF HIS CUP THIS MORNING? I WAS MAD YOU WERE WAKING ME UP AT TOO-EARLY-O’CLOCK BUT THEN I SAW THAT AND I LITERALLY SCREAMED._

**_DJane97:_  ** _ME TOO. MY MOM WAS AFRAID SOMETHING WAS WRONG. I WAS LIKE NO MA, SOMETHING IS VERY RIGHT._

Harry laughs loudly. He loves Camila and Dinah so much; he’s glad he has them to scream to about this, instead of only people who couldn’t care less about a Liam Payne.

**_HarryPayne:_  ** _Well , er , sorry Dinah’s mum ._

**_DJane97:_  ** _Lol it’s okay she’ll live._

**_HarryPayne:_  ** _That makes one of us. *laugh emoji*_

Suddenly Zayn comes in the room. Harry is slightly annoyed that he’s interrupting his Skype fangirling session, but he scooches over anyway.

“The volume on my music isn’t that high tonight, Zayn,” he tells him while continuing to type back and forth with the girls.

“Harry, it’s 3 AM,” Zayn says, Harry still not making eye contact.

“So? It’s a Friday night. There’s no school tomorrow. Plus we’re college students, we’re not supposed to go to bed at reasonable times every night.”

All of a sudden, Zayn steals Harry’s laptop from him and quickly types ‘Harry’s grounded, bye. – Zayn’, then closes his laptop screen.

“Hey! What gives?!” Harry demands, trying to take it back.

“Harry, I’m worried about you,” he says calmly, him and Harry playing tug-of-war with the computer.

“What? Because I pulled an all-nighter talking to my friends? Are you my roommate or my mum?”

“You still have work tomorrow, even if there’s no school. You should still be going to sleep.”

“Okay, mum. Five more minutes please!” Harry mocks.

Zayn sighs, giving up on trying to take away the computer. Harry immediately loads it back up and apologizes to the girls for his roommate being annoying. After that Zayn goes back to his room, apparently too tired to continue worrying about Harry.

Zayn is the best roommate Harry could ever ask for and all, but sometimes he can get on his last nerve.

Who cares if Harry doesn’t get enough sleep tonight? It’s not like he’s never done that before. Besides, all he needs is a large cup of coffee to wake him up.

He’ll be fine. Zayn’s just overreacting.

***

Zayn was not overreacting at all. Harry should have listened to him.

This morning, Harry pushed the ‘snooze’ button on his alarm one too many times, and by the time he actually got up (thanks to Zayn asking why the heck he’s still here, funny enough) he only had about ten minutes to get to his job.

He quickly put on an outfit and his apron and practically ran out the door. Somehow, miraculously, he was only four minutes late. Normani still talked him down for it, which he respected.

He’s running on empty pretty much all day, sneaking in drinks of coffee when he can – but today it doesn’t seem to be helping at all.

“Harry, come on man,” Louis says at one point when he nearly drops a customer’s drink… for the third time. “Maybe you should just go home early today…”

“Since when did you get responsible?” Harry questions, side-eying him.

“Since you being irresponsible is costing us customers,” Louis answers, pointing at two of their regulars – Robert and Eva – walking out the door with angry expressions on their faces.

“I hate to say it,” Normani says, cutting in. “But I think I agree with Louis. You should go home, honey.” She gives him a concerned smile.

He sighs. He really doesn’t want to leave so early; after all, college is not cheap, and he can’t spare being a single cent behind on his paycheck. Still, they have a point. He feels like he’s going to fall asleep standing up.

“Alright,” he admits defeat. “I’ll g-” Right before he can finish that sentence though, someone walks in the door. Someone with brown hair, brown eyes, and muscles that Harry thinks about on a regular basis.

“Liam!” Harry calls at once, his voice going high pitched at the end of saying that name. He tries to look cool by putting one arm on the register table. He’s one hundred percent sure he fails at doing so though.

Louis and one of the other workers ‘mysteriously’ disappear to the back, whispering and giggling to each other. Harry mentally rolls his eyes, not doing so physically because he’s afraid Liam will think he’s rolling his eyes at him.

“Good morning Harry,” Liam smiles that amazing smile that could stop wars, and Harry’s heart skips quite a few beats.

“G-” Harry clears his throat. “Good morning to you too. What are you still doing here? I thought you had to get back on the road or something.”

“I do, but I thought I’d get some coffee for the road.” He puts a mug in Harry’s hands and he feels like he’s holding something delicate. He makes sure to be extra careful with it, like it’s a fragile antique doll and could fall any moment.

He spends a little bit longer than probably needed to fill up Liam’s mug, and then returns to the register to ring him up.

Liam scans his credit card, but sticks around a beat longer. “Oh, also, there’s something else I have to do before I go.” He passes something to Harry and it takes everything in Harry to not scream.

***

“He gave you his phone number?!” Dinah and Camila yell at the same time.

Today the girls and Harry are on a face-to-face chat, because Harry thought this was way too big to just restrict to typed responses.

Harry just stares back at them, mouth open wide – which is pretty much the expression he’s had all day long. After Liam left, Harry told Normani that he will have to go home early today – but not because he’s too tired anymore. Because he’s wide awake, and can’t focus on anything else except this single piece of paper.

He’s shaking his head. “I just… I don’t have the words right now. What does this mean?”

“I’ll tell you what it means, H,” Dinah says. “It means you got game, dawg.” He laughs. “No, seriously. A superstar giving you his number after only talking to him for a day? You got serious game.”

“Give me his number!” Camila announces all at once.

“Walz, please,” Dinah tells her, both her and him glaring at her. “Give the guy some privacy.”

Camila looks back and forth between them. “Calm down guys, I was just joking… Mostly.” She looks upset for a moment, but soon returns to her previous grin. “But seriously Harry, I can’t breathe. I’m so happy for you.”

“I just… I don’t know how to feel to be honest?” he tells them. “Like, am I supposed to text first or?”

“Did you give him your number?” Dinah asks.

“No.”

“Well, there’s your answer. It’s all on you.”

He starts sweating, heart pumping fast as he stares down at the paper on his lap. He bites his lip as he looks back up at the screen. “I was afraid you’d say that…”

“Just give it a little bit,” Camila tells him calmly, probably noticing how scared and serious he really is about this. “Don’t send him a message while you’re strung up and nervous. Wait until you’re calmer and think you can handle it.”

As of now Harry doesn’t see a time in the future where he will ever think he can handle it, but he smiles anyway. “Thanks Camila.”

“No problem,” she smiles at him. Suddenly her mom calls for her in Spanish. Dinah and Harry just kind of look at each other while Camila and her mom exchange words, neither of them well versed in Spanish at all.

She eventually turns back to the screen. “Alright guys, I gotta go.” She gives the screen a kiss, which both of them return. “I’ll talk to you guys later. Harry, please try to breathe. I know it’s hard, I would certainly be bouncing off the walls too if I were in your position, but I care about you. So please try, for me?”

Harry nods, glad he has such an awesome friend who can take him back down to earth – even when he knows she’s probably still screaming on the inside as well. “Thank you Mila. I will try. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Oh I see how it is,” Dinah interjects. “I don’t get any love now?”

Camila laughs. “And I love you DJ.”

“Love you too, Walz. Talk to you later.”

With that, Camila signs out of Skype. Dinah and Harry talk to each other a little bit longer – mostly about non-Liam related things.

Eventually, when they finally finish, Harry decides to take a nap, hoping that when he wakes up he will be able to deal with this. He doubts it though, because how does one deal with having stinkin’  _Liam Payne_ ’s number sitting on their lap?

 

**Liam**

It’s been three days since Liam gave Harry his number. Since then, whenever he’s free, he’s mostly been staring at his phone, hoping to see an unknown number pop up on the screen saying “Hi it’s Harry”. So far though, the only unknown numbers he’s gotten texts from are spam messages.

He posts an Instagram selfie of himself pouting at the camera with no caption. He’s not sure why he always does things like that; maybe in this case he’s secretly hoping that Harry will get the notification for it and be inspired to text him or something.

Suddenly the door opens. It’s Niall. “You’re a superstar waiting by the phone for a fanboy to text you. Something isn’t right here.”

Liam sits up, scooching over so Niall can sit down next to him. He sighs. “I mean, was I just misreading his body language during our conversation at the coffee shop? He seemed to really like me, and want to know the real me. Maybe he doesn’t actually like me at all…”

When Liam turns to Niall, he’s giving him the most disbelieving glare Liam’s ever seen in his life. “Are you  _kidding_  me, Liam? Like I’m actually shocked at what you’re saying. ‘Maybe he doesn’t like you’? He took a picture of your cup for goodness sake.”

“So? Maybe he was just trying to get some money from that picture-”

“Money from a picture of a  _cup_?!”

“Well, yeah, he is a University student working a minimum wage job. He might need the-”

Niall covers Liam’s mouth with his hand before he can finish. He shakes his head. “Liam, you’ve seriously got it bad man.” Liam just exhales and nods, agreeing with that statement.

He removes his hand from Liam’s mouth but continues frowning. “I feel for you, Liam. I really do. I know what it’s like to be head over heels for someone. But, I’m worried. You like him for him but he only knows of you what he’s seen and heard in the media. That’s a very big imbalance to try and break.”

“I don’t see what the problem is. I’ve formed friendships with many of my fans over the years and you didn’t say anything then.” Liam is already exhausted from this conversation, he doesn’t like it when Niall or Paddy try to give him lectures.

“But you don’t want just a friendship, it’s obvious.” Liam groans, trying to turn away from Niall. Niall is persistent though and turns him back to face him. He can see honest concern written all over his best friend’s face, and he doesn’t like it. Doesn’t like it because he secretly knows that Niall might be right in this case, and he really doesn’t want to acknowledge that possibility. “Listen, Payno, I’m not trying to annoy you. I’m just afraid because you have a crush on him, and maybe he reciprocates that but not in the same way; you’re his idol, not his friend. Just remember that.”

After that, Niall gets up and leaves. Liam glares after him, laying down again.  _Forget him_ , he thinks.  _He has no idea what he’s talking about._

***

The first text finally comes when Liam is sleeping. His phone is on silent, and he’s trained himself to not hear it vibrate when someone texts him in the middle of the night, but for some reason his brain decides to wake up to it this time.

He’s glad he does though, because as soon as he sees the first three words in that text he’s wide awake and swiping to read the whole thing.

_Hi , it’s Harry . Hope I didn’t wake you up but I just wanted to say , um , thanks for giving me your number and making my day . Hope you have a good night . All the love .xx_

Liam giggles softly at the little “all the love”. Harry is so cute. Liam immediately texts back a smiley face and saves his number to his contacts. Hopefully he’ll have some time to text more to him tomorrow, but for now he needs to get some rest. He hopes Harry gets some sleep too, since it is a school night and what not.

***

Liam continues texting Harry whenever he can. Liam really doesn’t like talking about himself that much, but he feels at ease when talking to Harry.

**_L:_  ** _So what made u decide to take classes in the states ?_

**_H:_  ** _From the moment my roomie Zayn told me about how highly acclaimed this school is in the Psychology field, I was immediately in love and couldn’t shake it no matter how many good local Universities there were._

**_L:_  ** _Is your roomie also majoring in Psychology then ?_

**_H:_  ** _No , he’s an artist .xx_

**_L:_  ** _Cool!_

**_H:_  ** _Ya , he’s cool sometimes ;)_

Liam laughs. Just then Paddy calls him to let him know it’s time to record a few bars.

**_L:_  ** _Sorry I have to go now *sad face* talk to you later_

**_H:_  ** _Okay , go make some awesome music . All the love .xx_

 

**Harry**

Harry has been texting Liam so much that he sometimes thinks his fingers are going to fall off. It was a little hard at first to get over that initial fear of texting his idol but now he could text him all day… and he does, pretty much. Except when Liam needs to do Superstar Things of course.

**_H:_  ** _Lol , your sister stole your turtle when you were five ?_

**_L:_  ** _Yes , don’t laugh it was a very traumatic moment !_

Harry laughs loudly, typing up a reply while walking. Before he can press send though, he bumps into a figure and sends both of them to the floor.

He looks straight ahead at a very irritated Zayn. He’s not sure who else he thought it possibly could’ve been that he ran into, but his mind was in the clouds. “Oops, sorry Zayn.”

Zayn grumbles, scrambling to his feet and helping Harry up too. “Bro, you’ve been on that phone all day, all week. This is even worse than the Skyping. Have you even gotten any homework done?” Harry’s looking around the floor for his phone while they talk.

“I’ve gotten… some… done…” he responds awkwardly, blushing as he remembers the piles of homework still to be done sitting on his desk. He finds his phone and picks it up but before he can do anything on it Zayn speaks again.

“Oh cool! If you’ve gotten so much done we should go play Mario Kart together!” Zayn says, grabbing his wrist and making a show of starting to lead the two of them to the living room.

Harry laughs non-humorously, staying still and trying to break free of Zayn’s grip. “Zayn, no.”

“What?” Zayn turns back to face him. “If you’re done with all your homework and I’m done with all of mine, there shouldn’t be any reason not to play it. Unless, of course, you’re  _not_  done with your homework.” He has a wide smirk on his face, obviously knows the answer to that.

Harry grimaces. “Well, when I say I’ve got some done I mean, you know, like… ¼.”

“Uh, uh huh,” Zayn nods, pretending to be surprised by that. “Fascinating.”

“Why do you even care? Honestly I feel like you care more about my education than your own sometimes.”

“You ask me what feels like every day, and every time I say the same thing.” Zayn smiles, a look of genuine endearment at Harry’s shenanigans on his face. “You’ve wanted to go to this school since you first learned about it, and I know you have the capability to make it. You shouldn’t let that all go to waste.”

He pulls him into a hug, and Harry feels small tears in his eyes. “And this is the part of the script where I get mad at you because you’re not allowed to be so caring and s***.”

Zayn giggles and the two pull back. “Well, I’m sure your boyfriend would want you to do well in school too.”

Harry blushes as Zayn starts walking away. “He’s not my boyfriend!”

“Yeah, uh huh, sure.” Zayn closes the door to his room, leaving an embarrassed Harry just standing there.

He eventually goes back to his room, hating the fact that Zayn is right. He really does need to get a move on this homework. He sighs as he texts Liam one last time and turns off his phone before he can get distracted again.

 

 

**Liam**

Liam re-reads Harry’s text from last night, pouting. He said he needed to go because he had homework to do, but it’s been a day now and Liam thinks that was just his nice way of saying that he doesn’t want to talk to him. The two of them have been talking so much the past few days, Liam probably scared him away by being too obsessive…

“Liam!” Niall calls from outside the door, temporarily interrupting Liam’s sad thoughts. “Get ready, we need to rehearse for your performance tomorrow.”

“Okay, be right there!” Liam yells back. With one last look at his and Harry’s texts, he sighs and puts his phone in his pants pocket.

When he gets there and starts rehearsing, he tries his best to focus on practicing his songs. His mind keeps going back to Harry though. It’s a Wednesday today which means he’s probably in Statistics right now with that teacher he talked about hating – Ms. Session. Is she giving him a hard time right now? Is he handling it okay if she is?

Niall clears his throat loudly, breaking away Liam from his thoughts. “Yes?” Liam asks as Niall looks at him awkwardly.

“Uh… You stopped singing…”

“I did?” Liam blushes.

The rest of the crew looks at each other with confusion at how Liam could not notice he stopped singing.  _That makes several of us,_  he thinks.

“Alright,” Niall announces. “Take a break everybody.” Then he walks up to Liam and drags him away to another room before he can do anything else.

Once in the other room, the two of them just kind of stare at each other for a few moments, Niall looking Liam up and down as if he’s a machine that’s missing a battery. Liam just waits for him to finally speak, not wanting to accidentally do anything else to mess things up.

“Liam, what is going on with you man?” Niall questions, somehow conveying frustration, confusion, and pity all at once in his eyes. “When you started singing your face looked sad already, and then out of nowhere you just stopped before the second verse started.”

“I guess I was just thinking too hard about something…” Liam mumbles, hoping Niall will just assume it’s nerves about the upcoming performance and nothing more.

He should know by now that Niall’s not that easy to fool when it comes to him though. “Oh, I see. This is about Harry. What happened? Did you scare him away with that story about your sister stealing your turtle?” He giggles, trying to make Liam feel better by making jokes, like he usually does.

It doesn’t really work this time though, and that question makes Liam feel a bit worse instead of better. Niall quickly notices and gets closer to him, putting his arm around his neck. “Oh hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel worse. What happened?”

“He hasn’t talked to me at all today… I’m worried I did something to offend him, or have been too obsessive by texting him day in and out lately…” He stares down at his feet.

“What was the last thing he said to you?” Niall asks, voice unjudging.

“He said he had to turn off his phone to focus on homework,” Liam responds, afraid Niall will think he’s dumb for getting this way over that. “But that was last night. I know you’ll say I’m overreacting but shouldn’t he have turned his phone back on by now? What if he hates me for texting him so much?”

“Payno,” Niall replies soothingly, rubbing circles on his best friend’s shoulders. “Your mind is playing tricks on you. I may not know Harry at all but I do know that he loves talking to you. He may not be able to every second of the day – but neither are you. There have been times when you’re busy in the studio, or practicing for a performance or something and you’re not able to text him. Do you think that maybe he has had these same fears about you?”

“Maybe…” Liam admits, hoping that he’s never given Harry those thoughts before.

“Exactly, and then the second your name lit up his phone with a funny picture those thoughts were wiped away. You shouldn’t start worrying this much after just one day.” He plants a kiss on Liam’s cheek and that brings a bit of a smile back to Liam’s face. “Now come on, let’s go back to rehearsals.”

***

Later that night – with much hardship at first – Niall convinces Liam to make the first move and text Harry first instead of waiting around any longer. He sits with him as he types the text in order to help him stay calm.

Liam presses enter on the text, hoping to get some response soon…

**_LP:_  ** _hey , haven’t heard from you today . I hope your ok and that your homework went well last night …_

He didn’t expect Harry to respond back almost immediately.

**_HS:_  ** _Hi ! Yeah I’m sorry I didn’t text you today , I’m trying to give my roomie less reasons to yell at me by finishing my hw earlier … *eyeroll emoji* I’m good tho . I got an A on the maths hw from last night so I’d say I did pretty good . Lol ._

**_LP:_  ** _Oh … *sad face* Is your roommate mean to you?_

**_HS:_  ** _*laughing emoji* Haha no , we just give each other a hard time. Anyway enough about me , how are you doing tonight ? xx_

“See?” Niall grins. “I told you there was nothing to worry about.”

Liam smiles back at him and gives him a big hug. “Thank you Niall. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Niall replies, standing up. “But I’m gonna go to bed now because, to be frank, staring at your texts all night is pretty creepy. Also I don’t want to be there when the nude sharing starts.”

“There is no nude sharing!” Liam says a little too loud, quickly covering his mouth. Niall laughs on the way out, as if Liam saying that loud enough for probably the whole building to hear was exactly what he wanted. Liam secretly thinks it probably was.

‘Oh I know all about roommates giving you a hard time,’ he starts typing. ‘You met Niall.’ The two of them keep texting for pretty much the whole night and, at least for now, Liam’s worries seem to fade away.


	2. Through The Wire

**Harry**

_“You’ve sure been talking about this Harry Styles guy a lot lately,” the interviewer prods. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think the two of you are dating.”_

_Liam laughs. “Take an espresso shot for every time I’m asked this.”_

_The interview is extremely confused. “I’m sorry what? An espresso shot?”_

Harry laughs loudly, watching the interview on his computer screen. Liam had told him to watch it for this part right here. Liam referenced one of their inside jokes on national television, and the interviewer is at such a loss of what to say it’s hilarious.

The joke started a few weeks ago and the two of them can’t stop saying it.

**_H:_  ** _We should make our own drinking game , like ‘take a shot for every time our roommates mess with us’_

**_LP:_  ** _We’d be dead by morning ._

**_H:_  ** _*laughing emoji* True._

**_LP:_  ** _Wait I got it , instead of ‘take a shot’ it should be take an ESPRESSO shot , since you work at a café *tongue emoji*_

**_H:_  ** _JLKFDASKJL;FSA THAT IS A FANTASTIC IDEA_

Ever since then the two have been sending each other “take an espresso shot for every _” texts pretty much every day. One time Harry accidentally said out loud to Zayn, “take an espresso shot for every time I crush you in Mario Kart”. He looked at him pretty much the same way the interviewer is looking at Liam in this video.

**_H:_  ** _Just watched the interview *laugh emoji* That interviewer really didn’t have a clue what you were talking about *laugh emoji*_

**_LP:_  ** _I kno . He needs to get with the times tbh . *laugh emoji*_

Right as he’s about to type another response, he gets a notification from Skype that Camila and Dinah want to video chat.

**_H:_  ** _Walz and DJ want to video chat with me , so I’m gonna head off. I promise I’ll talk to you later though .xx_

**_LP:_  ** _Okay , tell them I said hi._

With that Harry puts his phone on silent so it won’t distract him while he’s talking to the girls.

“Hey guys,” he says as soon as the video screen pops up. “What’s up? Oh also Liam says hi.”

“What’s up?” Dinah asks like it’s a ridiculous question. “What’s up is that tickets to Liam’s new tour went on sale an hour ago and I’m scrambling to get tickets, dawg. Can you ask him to help a sister out here?”

“Now Dinah,” Camila tells her, also looking like she’s doing three things at once. “We promised we weren’t gonna use Harry to cheat.”

“It’s not cheating!” Dinah objects.

“Wait, wait, hold on a second,” Harry responds, trying to keep up. “Tickets for his tour are on sale already?”

Camila and Dinah pause from their fast typing for just a second to look up at him with judgment basically oozing through them.

“Are you serious?” Camila asks. “You have the guy in your phone and he seriously didn’t tell you that tickets were going on sale today?”

“He might have… Several hours ago…” Harry tries to think back now. “I don’t know, we’ve had a really long text conversation today and I kind of forgot where it started at this point-”

The girls turn to their sides as if they can see each other that way, and it’s almost like they can – in Harry’s video chat it looks like they’re looking right at each other. The two immediately crack up laughing, turning back to their typing soon after.

He is a little bit irritated with that action, he’s not going to lie. “What is so funny about that?”

Camila is obviously trying really hard not to continue laughing, smile stuck on her face. “Oh Harry, if someone had told any of us, like, two months ago that you’d be besties with Liam stinkin’ Payne of all people, we all would’ve laughed into oblivion.”

“Yeah well, so what if we are besties now?”

“Oh my gosh H, don’t take it that seriously,” Dinah says, a look on her face now like she’s afraid of saying the wrong thing. “We just think it’s funny that, before now, you never would’ve missed a Liam tour announcement and now you’re talking to him to the point where you forget how your original conversation started.”

She looks like she’s going to continue reassuring him they meant no malice, but all of a sudden her face lights up and her mouth opens wide. Before he can say anything, she starts screaming. “YES! I got it, b****es! I got three floor seats for Liam on August 11th!” She starts dancing around the room and pumping her fist in the air.

“August 11th?” Camila asks. “That’s the date I’ve been searching for too! Can I go with you?”

“What do you mean  _can_  you? Both of you are obviously going with me.”

Camila turns to her left and holds her hand up in a high five motion, and Dinah does the same to her right. It looks almost like they are right in the same room giving each other a high five – if it weren’t for the different colored walls of course.

“Okay seriously that is freaky. How the heck do you guys do that?” He shakes his head, but then turns back to reality, jaw dropping. “Wait a minute, Dinah, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“If what you think I’m saying is that the Skype Crew is  _finally_ gonna meet up in the flesh at a Liam Payne concert, then heck yeah dude I most definitely am!”

Harry’s mind is spinning. It takes everything in him to not scream as loud as he possibly can. “But wait what about hotels? There’s no way I’ll be able to drive all the way back in one night, and there’s also no way I can – at this moment – afford a hotel by myself.”

“Pfft,” Dinah says like this is all no big deal. “Don’t worry about it. My mom is chill, and she’ll be more than happy to pay for a hotel for us and stuff. I’m not sweating it.”

Harry’s covering his mouth so he can’t yell. Instead, with one hand, he types “JKFL;ASDKFJL;ASKJL;DSAF” into the actual Skype chat. Camila responds about the same, also at a loss for words.

“Mark your calendars guys,” Dinah tells them. “August 11th, we coming.”

Harry can’t hold it back anymore. He squeals, but still tries to keep it as quiet as he possibly can. Camila also squeals, not holding back her loudness.

They try to talk for a little bit longer, but every few minutes one of them says “oh my gosh I can’t believe this is actually happening” and they’re right back to the concert again. After signing off, Harry puts on his earbuds and listens to Liam’s most upbeat songs on repeat, imagining dancing to this at the concert with Dinah and Camila. Wow, he can’t wait for August 11th to come.

**_H:_ ** _See you on August 11th ;) .xx_

As soon as he hits send on that text he turns off the lights and goes to bed smiling, dreaming of what it will be like on that day.

 

**Liam**

After a day jam packed with rehearsals and meetings with his manager and a whole other bunch of hoopla, you can bet your butt Liam passed the heck out on his bed after it was all over. Not pausing to look at his phone or anything else.

Now, stretching and slowly reaching over to the table for his phone, he’s already contemplating what the true damage would be if he just rolled back over and went back to sleep.

As soon as he turns on his phone though and sees the first new text he has, he jolts awake and all thoughts of laying back down instantly fade.

Harry sent him a text saying that he can’t wait to see him on August 11th, and ended the text with a winky face. Liam’s heart is beating fast and the first thing on his mind is to run to Niall.

“Niall!” He shouts a few times before finally finding the door to his room.

Niall grumbles, sitting up to face the door. “What do you want Liam? I don’t have to be up for another… three minutes…” He tries to lay back down but Liam won’t let him. He walks over to the other boy’s bed and sits down next to him.

“You really can’t let me have a three-minute power nap? I let you have a thirty-minute power nap before the interview two days ago.”

“That’s only because it literally took thirty-one minutes to drive there,” Liam sasses back. “Anyway, look at this text Harry sent me!” He practically shoves his phone in Niall’s face before he can object.

As soon as Niall reads it, his eyebrows go up higher than Liam thinks he’s ever seen them. “You know what this means don’t you? You’re in.”

“I’m in?”

“Yeah dude. That wink face is an obvious sign that he likes you as much as you like him.”

Liam starts blushing. “You really think so?”

“Oh I know so,” Niall responds like it’s obvious. “But I also know that I really want to go back to sleep so can you just-?” Right before he can finish that sentence, his own phone goes off with an alarm. Liam recognizes it as the sound of the alarm that wakes Niall up every day.

He grumbles. “Nevermind… Guess we’re due for the studio now.”

The rest of that day, and the days that follow, Liam is walking on air. Harry likes him – and he likes Harry back.

He doesn’t change the way they text each other or anything like that because he wants to save making things official official for when they see each other in person again. On August 11th.

***

“No Liam I won’t,” Paddy insists.

“C’mon,” Liam whines. “His friend Dinah is part of the Fanclub and Paul gives surprise M&Gs to members of the Fanclub after they buy tickets sometimes.”

“Well then legally I can only give a M&G to her since she’s the one that bought the tickets.” Paddy sasses. “Besides, I’m not Paul. Why don’t you go talk to him?”

“‘Legally’ as if there are laws about who can and can’t have M&Gs.” He continues talking before Paddy can tell him there actually are or something. “Look I will make more than enough money on this tour to pay you back for his M&G if that’s the problem. Please just do me a solid this one time.”

“‘This one time’,” he mocks. “As if I haven’t heard that like forty-five times already.” Liam gives him the best pout he can manage and Paddy laughs. “Fine, I’ll invite him to the M&G, but you owe me.”

“Thank you Paddy.” Liam hugs him tightly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Paddy laughs. “Just give me his phone number already.”

 

 

**Harry**

Usually Harry doesn’t answer calls from numbers he doesn’t recognize; maybe it’s because he’s running on empty so hard right now, or maybe it’s because something in him says there’s something really good on the other line, but whatever it is tonight he decides to answer this unknown number.

“Hello?” He starts, moving around in his blanket.

“Hello,” the person on the other line responds. Their voice sounds slightly familiar but he can’t figure out why. “I’m Paddy, bodyguard of Liam Payne and runner of his Fanclub website.”

Harry sits up slowly, realizing that’s why his voice sounded familiar. But why would Liam’s bodyguard be calling him right now? Or at all really?

“On our site I noticed that you had tickets to the August 11th show and I-”

“How?” Harry interrupts, confused. “I didn’t post on the site that I was going to that show. I didn’t even know you could. Are you sure you didn’t mean to call my friend Dinah Jane?”

Paddy seems to be struck speechless at that for a few moments, and Harry almost thinks he’s hung up, but then he finally speaks again. “Oh for crying out loud Harry, Liam is giving you a M&G because he wants to see you again. Are you in or not?”

Harry laughs, and it speaks to how close he and Liam have become overtime that he doesn’t scream like he would have mere months ago. “I would love to!”

“Okay,” Paddy says, still sounding like he’s tired of Liam’s antics. “Give me your email address and I’ll give you all the information on the M&G – or, you know what, just text it to Liam’s phone. He’ll be more than happy to give you the information I’m sure.”

“I will,” Harry replies and the two of them say goodbye to each other. After they hang up he texts Liam’s phone with his email and then sighs as he once again spreads himself across the bed. The best day of his life is now going to be even better. He’s going to meet the Skype Squad in the flesh, see Liam rock the stage,  _and_  also talk to him face-to-face for the first time since that day in the café. He goes to bed with the biggest smile on his face.

***

It’s spring break and Zayn and Harry are both higher than usual.

Now, Harry isn’t exactly afraid of heights but this roller coaster they’re on is almost making him pee his pants.

He screams so loud when the big drop comes that he’s scared his voice box is going to fall out. Luckily for him, it’s just a few more twists and turns after that that the ride ends and they can get off.

Harry is out of breath and has to collect himself for a moment, but the person in charge of the roller coaster is getting impatient with him. Zayn laughs.

“Come on Harry,” he says, practically having to drag him out of the seat.

Harry allows Zayn to carry him out of the seat and to the exit. After they’re outside of the exit Harry finally shakes himself back to reality and turns to face Zayn.

“Why do I always let you talk me into going on rides like that?” he asks, the two of them walking to the photo booth so they can buy their picture.

“Because you love me,” Zayn blinks his eyes super fast and Harry lightly slaps him in the face, which makes Zayn return to laughter. “You know, you don’t  _always_  have to go on rides with me. You could just hang out by the stairs and wait for me to be done.”

“Yeah but if I did that you’d call me a baby.” Zayn shrugs, not even attempting to deny it as he gets his wallet out and gives the person working five euros.

As the picture prints out, Zayn starts getting into a giggle fit yet again. “Oh my gosh babe you look a hot mess.” Harry starts blushing hard because he can’t deny that he does. Zayn takes the photo and stares at it for a moment. “That one’s definitely going on my wall when we get back to school.”

Harry rolls his eyes, silently thinking to himself  _not if it mysteriously vanishes_. With that the two of them start walking to another ride, waving to Zayn’s sisters when they pass by them.

Harry has been going to this theme park with Zayn and his family for as long as he can remember. It started when they were in middle school and has just continued every year since. Harry hadn’t ever thought of himself as a baby when it comes to rides like the one they just went on, but when Zayn first introduced him to the rides he liked the most, Harry was a little shaken up.

Even if Zayn is a bigger adrenaline junkie than he is, Harry wouldn’t trade any of the memories the two of them have made together at this park for the world.

After the two of them get done on Harry’s favorite ride – the Tilt-A-Whirl – they pause for a moment to get some food and drinks.

As they sit on a bench drinking – lemonade for Zayn, water for Harry – and sharing pieces of funnel cake, Zayn starts smiling.

Harry has a mouth-full of funnel cake when he says, “What? You laughin’ at the way I eat?”

“I only understood half of that,” Zayn teases, and Harry sticks out his ugly tongue at him. Zayn covers his eyes, snickering and waiting for Harry to go back to chewing his food.

“No,” he responds when he uncovers his eyes. “I’m not laughing at the way you eat. I’m used to that.” Harry throws a napkin at him but Zayn easily catches it. “I was just thinking about when we first came here together, how hard both of us tried to win all those stuffed animals. Eventually my mum came in and whooped our a***s, winning the game with ease.” He giggles.

“Yes,” Harry replies, swallowing before he joins in on the laughter. “I remember she wouldn’t let us forget it for weeks on end, but then she ended up giving the teddy bear to you anyway.”

“Yeah… She loves me too much to deny me anything.” Zayn winks and takes another big sip of his lemonade. Before he and Harry can continue talking to each other though, Zayn’s phone starts ringing to the tune of one of the songs from the Avengers soundtrack.

“Hello mum?” He asks. “Wait, I can’t hear you. What?” He covers his other ear to listen better. “Yeah, alright. Yeah, yeah, we’ll catch up with you at the usual place mum. Bye.” He hangs up, puts his phone back in his pocket, and chugs everything left in his lemonade cup.

Before Harry can say anything, Zayn is dragging him out of his seat. “Come on, we gotta cram in one final short ride before they get all the way to the gift shop!”

“But what about the rest of our funnel cake?!” Harry whines, even though he knows it’s pointless because Zayn is rushing both of them with a purpose towards one of those rides that goes up, up, up, and then suddenly goes down. He exhales, annoyed at the fact that all that remaining delicious funnel cake is gonna go to waste. “I hate you.”

“I know.”

***

It’s been a few weeks since Spring Break ended, which means it’s time for every student’s least favorite time of the term: Studying for finals.

Harry hasn’t gotten to talk to Dinah, Camila, Liam, or really anybody at all in the past few weeks except for Zayn and his co-workers at the café. And even then, he and Zayn mostly only talk when it’s about what they’re studying, or when Harry offers Zayn a cup of coffee to help him stay up tonight. Even though Zayn is a self-professed weird student who likes going to bed before 12 AM, final studying time calls for extreme measures.

Sometimes the two of them end up falling asleep on each other on the living room couch with a stack of papers in their hands, dreaming of terms, definitions, and the day when the last final will be over.

Finals time is simultaneously the slowest and fastest time of the year, and before Harry knows it he’s passing out from his last late-night study session.

**_LP:_  ** _Hi , sorry I kno I shouldn’t be texting u rn , but I remember u saying ur last final is tomorrow , and just wanted to wish you good luck . *Heart emoji*_

Harry stares at the text but his brain is still inside his pillow so all he can do is send a heart emoji back before putting his phone at his bedside table and falling back into dream world.

That last final is the longest one of them all – probably because his teacher for this class put way too many questions on it – but it’s also the one he has the most faith in. He doesn’t want to jinx it but he thinks the reason it’s going so well is because of Liam wishing him good luck.

As soon as he hands that final to his teacher, he is out the door and practically running to the bus to get back to his and Zayn’s apartment. The two of them promised they’d have a party that night – and to the two of them a party is basically just them playing video games, drinking coffee, and making fun of all the ridiculous questions and answers they had to endure that day. Definitely the only good thing about finals season, Harry thinks.

While he’s on the bus back to the apartment, he thinks about how the summer days are going to look. He’s saved up his sick days at his job so that he can take a two week break and go back home to visit his family a bit. After that there’s nothing really exciting that he has planned until August 11th – but a break is a break and he’s mostly just happy that  _at last_  it is summer.


	3. Going out tonight, changes into something red

**Liam**

Every night on tour, Liam meets new fans who make him smile with the things they make for him, the things they buy for him, and the things they say to him about how much he has inspired them. Every night he sees more and more fans who make him feel like he’s on top of the world. Every night he walks out of the meet and greets feeling so happy.

But every night he can’t help but wish a certain someone was there in the meet and greet room. Someone who he’s been practicing, and practicing, and practicing what he’s going to say when he sees him. Someone who, for the first time ever, has made Liam more nervous for the M&G than the fans themselves usually are. Someone named Harry Styles.

***

“It’s tomorrow?!” Liam yells. “August 11th is… tomorrow?!”

“Yeah,” Niall responds like it’s obvious. “I’m surprised you didn’t already know; I assumed you had a mental countdown clock going with how frequently you talk about it.”

“I mean, I guess I did, but it didn’t really register with me until you said it out loud…” Liam’s shaking his head. “It’s tomorrow…” he repeats quieter, resigning himself to laying down on one of the nearby couches.

“Liam,” Niall says, a mixture of annoyed and amused – the tone he usually has with Liam – as he stands by the corner of the couch, looking down at Liam’s face. “What are you so worried about? You’re in, bro. He obviously likes you. And it’s definitely obvious you like him. What are you so afraid of?”

“How is it obvious though, Niall?” Liam sits up, making room for his best friend. “How do I know for sure?”

“The dude sends you heart emojis,” Niall tells him. “And the way you know for sure is by asking him tomorrow. That’s literally all you have to do. ‘Hey Harry, I like you. Do you want to go out?’”

Liam glares at him. “Why is it you always make things that feel so complicated sound so easy?”

Niall shrugs. “Because it’s easier to give other people advice than deal with your own problems.” A second of silence and then the two of them laugh at each other. “But seriously, it’s not healthy for you to be up all night worrying about this. Promise me you’ll go to bed soon.”

“I promise I’ll try to go to bed soon,” Liam compromises, not wanting to make promises he can’t keep.

“Alright.” Niall gives him a cheek kiss, accepting that as an answer. “Goodnight Payno.”

“Goodnight Niall.”

Liam tries to get some sleep, he really does, but all he can think about is Harry. Harry’s eyes, Harry’s lips, Harry’s curls… Goodness, he really can’t wait to see him in the flesh again tomorrow. He needs this moment.

***

Today’s the day. Liam is the most nervous for a show he can remember being since he first started. Taking a deep breath, he tries to calm his trembling hands and focus. It’s just another day, it’s just another day.

 

 

**Harry**

Today’s the day. This morning Harry jet out of bed the moment his alarm went off and practically ran to the kitchen to get his breakfast. He’s so excited he can hardly breathe. Zayn attempts to calm him down but nothing can. Not today.

As Harry reaches to put his coffee to his lips, Zayn takes it and says, “Are you _really_ sure you need coffee today? You’re already wired up well beyond repair. Coffee will probably make it worse.”

“Zayn, it’s been like, two years since I last started the day _without_ coffee.” He starts yanking it back and wins, probably because Zayn doesn’t want either of them to burn themselves. “Besides, you said it yourself, I’m already wired up. What’s the worst thing coffee could do to me at this point?”

***

“Oh my gosh, I’m flying!” Harry yells. “Zayn, look at me, I’m flying!”

“Harry you’re literally just standing on top of a stool and flapping your arms up and down.” Zayn rolls his eyes, pretending to be unamused. Harry knows he’s secretly enjoying it though.

“Why you always gotta be a party pooper Zayn-y?”

“It’s my job.” Zayn smirks, then points out the window. “Oh look, I think that’s them!” Harry screams, loud and unapologetic. Zayn covers his ears. “Can you not?”

“Sorry, that’s _my_ job.” Harry giggles and starts skipping to the door, stopping to get his bags on the way out. “Bye Zayn. Don’t miss me too much.”

“I won’t,” Zayn assures, winking.

Harry sticks his tongue out at Zayn, and Zayn returns the favor. After that Harry is off, jumping and making inhuman sounds as he gets closer and closer to the car.

Yes, he is hyper and weird. Does he care? No way, because he’s about to meet his best gal friends in the flesh. If there was ever a time to be hyper, this is definitely it.

As he gets up close to the car, the window on the shotgun side starts rolling down slowly but surely. “Heey, if it isn’t my dawg, Harry Styles!” It’s Dinah.

“Oh my gosh” is all Harry can say as he runs the rest of the way over to her and hugs her tight and long. “I can’t believe you’re real. I mean, I know you’re real from all of our Skype chats and stuff, but seeing you in the flesh is just a dream come true and-”

She cuts him off (probably a good thing). “Bro, have you had more coffee than usual?” Harry shakes his head no. He hasn’t. He’s just very, very happy to finally meet his girls in the flesh. She giggles. “Alright, get in the back already. It’s time for us to roll out.”

He obliges, grin only growing as he gets in the seat behind Dinah and realizes yes, this is really happening. It’s not a dream anymore.

“Umm, don’t start the car yet,” Camila says. “Because I demand at least one hug the size and length of that Dinah hug.”

Not having to be told twice, he immediately scooches over and brings her into a big hug, sobbing a little bit. “Camila I’m so happy I can finally hug you. I’ve always known you were a good hugger, now I have proof.”

Camila giggles. “Save the flirting for your Meet and Greet with Liam, honey.” She winks, but she’s hugging back just as hard anyway.

“If you two are done smooching,” Dinah’s mom – Milika – says. “It’s time for us to get a move on.” Harry and Camila crack up at that and go to buckle their seat belts. He can definitely see where Dinah gets her sense of humor from…

***

If any of them thought this was going to be a peaceful ride, they were surely mistaken. Harry feels bad for Milika, having to drive them while they’re like this. But also he can’t feel too bad because he’s having the most fun he’s had… ever.

Liam’s albums are playing in the car, but no one can hear them because Harry, Dinah, and Camila are all talking over each other at once. It’s hard to even know what they’re saying at this point, but somehow it all makes perfect sense to them.

“So over spring break me and my roommate Zayn went to this theme park like we do every year, and he totally left behind some perfectly good funnel cake on the table we were sitting at-” Harry is telling them, because yes, he is still that upset about it and probably will be for a while.

“Dude, I can’t believe that!” Camila interjects. “What a waste!”

“Forget the funnel cake,” Dinah tells him. “When are we gonna meet your roommate? Why didn’t he come out to greet us and say goodbye?”

“Dinah, did you just say _forget_ funnel cake?” Camila gasps, offended.

“I don’t know, DJ,” Harry shrugs. “You just met me after all. Now you already want to meet my roommate?”

“Yeah I do,” Dinah responds. “He’s hot, bruh.” Harry snickers, not having expected that response.

“Okay back up Dinah,” Camila tells her. “ _Forget_ funnel cake? Really?”

“Walz, is that all you’re gonna focus on this entire ride now?” She rolls her eyes.

“Yes it is!” Camila all but yells. “I can’t believe you straight up said _forget funnel cake_. That’s like saying forget pizza!”

It continues like that the whole ride. Honestly Harry is impressed with Milika’s ability to not explode on all of them – he knows _his_ mom would. Then again, Dinah has way more siblings than he does, so maybe her mom is used to this kind of foolishness by now.

After they arrive at their hotel room, they only have a few minutes to unpack before Milika has to drive Harry to the area he has to go to for the Meet and Greet.

Dinah and Camila decide to come along with them to see him off. At first Milika tries to object because she’s tired of the loudness ( _can’t blame her on that one,_ he thinks), but the girls make a promise that they will only speak when it’s time to say goodbye and wish him luck.

It doesn’t take that long to drive all the way there, so the three of them are able to keep their promises and control their urges to talk to each other. For now, at least. When the concert actually starts it will be another story.

When they find the building and Harry gets out of the car, he waves goodbye to the girls and Milika, saying that he’ll see them later. They all echo that sentiment, with Camila asking him to get her an autograph and Dinah telling him “don’t f*** it up”. He laughs and promises to do his best with both instructions.

Taking a deep breath, he gets in line. He can’t wait to finally see Liam for the first time in forever. This is going to be so awesome.

 

 

**Liam**

_Oh my gosh_ , Liam thinks. _This is gonna be terrible_.

The soundcheck just ended and he’s getting ready for the Meet and Greets. He saw Harry in the audience during the soundcheck waving at him, and he’s pretty sure his cheeks were an extremely dark shade of red as he waved back. Can’t wait for the fans to make a million tweets about that video.

“Why did I let you talk me into this?!” Liam tells Paddy.

Paddy glares at him. “You were the one who talked me into it, kid. And honestly I’m wishing you didn’t because, to be frank, you’re a mess.”

“I am!” Liam agrees, pulling at his hair a bit, then stopping because he remembers how mad his hairstylist gets when he does that. “I’m such a mess right now and I have no idea what the heck I’m going to say to him.”

Paddy puts his hands on Liam’s shoulders to try to relax him. “Liam, listen to me. You’ve been spending so much time worrying about what to say to him and what to do and all that stuff, but the truth of the matter is you don’t have to. You just have to let what happens, happen. Just let the conversation flow, don’t try to force anything.”

He pulls him in for a hug and Liam is so grateful for that hug. He loves Paddy, he really does. He’s more than just a bodyguard, he’s family.

Paddy pulls away and the two of them smile at each other. “And for God’s sake, man, you’re Liam freakin’ Payne. Liam freakin’ Payne never goes down without a fight. Now hurry up, the fans are waiting impatiently.” Liam laughs and does as he’s told.

***

As the fans start pouring in, Liam feels more relaxed as time goes on. He loves this. He loves being able to talk to fans, see things they made just for him, and hear about how this is the best day of their lives. This feeling honestly never gets old. He just wishes he had more time with each of them, to talk to them more in depth about their lives, their interests, and their favorite songs on the album.

One little kid comes up to him with a picture they drew of him and them playing together on a playground. It is one of the cutest things he’s ever seen, even if they are just stick figures in the drawing. He plans to hang it up in his house as soon as he gets back there again.

And then right after that kid leaves, an older person comes in who is celebrating one year of being clean and tells Liam that he helped them do that. This is one of the many reasons Liam loves making music so much – it means a lot to not only himself but also to so many people out there of so many different age groups and walks of life. It makes him want to sob a bit sometimes if he’s honest.

He starts to think that, hey, maybe he can handle it when Harry comes here after all. But the second he sees those dimples and curls are next in line, he goes right back into panic mode.

“Hey!” Harry waves as soon as he gets there, pulling Liam into a hug. _Just let the conversation flow,_ he repeats in his head as he hugs back. “Oh my gosh I haven’t seen you in forever, I don’t want to let go.”

Liam giggles, his heart skipping a beat when Harry says that. “Well, you don’t have to.” He panics for a split second because that may have sounded too flirtatious – and he’s pretty sure he heard the next fans in line giggling – but Harry’s still smiling at him so he takes that as a good sign.

“Alright,” Harry starts talking a little faster now, but still has his arms around Liam’s tummy. “I know I don’t have a lot of time but I just wanted to tell you something quickly.” Now he does let go of Liam’s tummy and Liam would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little upset by that action. He quickly pulls out a piece of paper and a pen.

“My friends – Dinah and Camila – they are here. Well not here-here but they’re gonna be at the show. The three of us all came up here together! Anyway, I know this is a little awkward since we’re, you know.” He tilts his head back and forth. “We know each other better than just idol and fan now, but… would you mind just giving me an autograph for Camila?”

Liam isn’t sure he caught all of that fully, but he takes the pen and paper anyway and signs it for Camila. “Of course. I hope you guys had an awesome ride here together and whatnot.” He smiles, and Harry smiles back at him.

“We definitely did! It was so much fun, although I think we drove Dinah’s mom a little-”

“Hey!” The camera person interrupts, getting both of them to turn around. They clear their throat. “I’m sorry Liam but there are a lot of other fans still waiting in line so can we just do the picture now?”

“Oh, of course,” Harry replies, not seeming offended at all. He whispers in Liam’s ear, “Is it okay if I kiss your cheek?” Liam gulps down an inhuman noise and nods. “Awesome!”

As Harry is kissing Liam’s cheek and posing for the picture, Liam realizes all the words he hasn’t gotten the chance to say to him because these things are so short. He has so much he wanted to say, to his face, but ran out of time to say it because he was having too much fun listening to Harry talk.

Liam quickly realizes there’s only one way to say what he needs to say. It’s by not saying anything at all, but rather by doing.

Heart beating fast in his chest, Liam turns Harry’s face – still in kissing position – to his, and, in one swift motion right before the camera takes the picture, he puts his lips on Harry’s.

 

 

**Harry**

Gasps and squeals sound from the people in line behind him. Harry thinks he feels a gasp escapes his own lips as well, but he doesn’t hear it.

But before he can find a way to speak all the jumbled words going together in his head, he’s being pulled away. Not hard, but still being pulled away nonetheless. Because it’s time for the next person in line to take their turn. Harry’s time is up, he knows, but now more than ever he feels like he needs time to talk to Liam face to face again.

Wow, Liam kissed him. That’s awesome! Wait, _why_ did Liam kiss him? Was it just for the cameras, or was it something more? He’s so confused and feels like he’s walking on air as the people give him his VIP goodies (including a tote bag and some VIP stickers).

They ask him if he wants to do the line free shopping that the rest of the people who went to the Meet and Greet are now doing. He says yes, because he promised Dinah and Camila he would get them T-shirts so they didn’t have to wait in line for them later.

He can barely feel anything as he walks up to the register and buys two T-shirts in their sizes, as well as one poster. He’s so numb and so anxious all at the same time – feeling everything as well as nothing.

Two questions keep repeating over and over again in his mind: Why did Liam kiss him? And what does this mean?

***

When the doors open for the rest of the concert goers to get inside, Harry is sitting by the entrance waiting. And it doesn’t take that long before Camila and Dinah enter the venue and see him, screaming and opening their arms to pull him into a group hug, which he welcomes. If he can help it, they will never know (at least not tonight) how much this hug means to him right now.

“So…” Camila and Dinah look at each other, smiling widely, then both start talking at once.

“How was it?” “How’d your Meet and Greet with Mr. Payne go?”

Harry giggles at both of them. Hopefully his smile at their excitement covers up the anxiety he’s still feeling inside. “Umm… It was okay. I don’t _think_ I f***ed it up.” He motions to Dinah when he says that, who laughs.

 _But what if you did_ , his anxiety says to him. He tries to ignore it.

“Oh!” He remembers, reaching down in his VIP tote bag and feeling around for the piece of paper. “Here you go Camila.” He hands her the autograph she requested, and she starts squealing and jumping up and down.

Soon she seems to think she looks too ridiculous and stops, looking around and blushing. “I mean… uh… Thank you.” She kisses him on the cheek and puts the autograph in her purse. He just giggles. He has the cutest best friends.

He then hands both of them their T-shirts. After that they both decide they’re hungry and thirsty, so they head to one of the concession stands. Dinah gets a soda and a burger. Camila gets water and chicken nuggets (“Never change Mila,” Dinah comments with a giggle). Harry gets mac and cheese, having not realized how hungry he was until they got to that concession stand.

They walk and eat/drink, asking the people in charge how to get to their seats on the floor area. It’s still about half an hour to go until the opening act comes on stage. Surprisingly to him, the girls don’t prod him for more information about the M&G, they were seemingly satisfied with the non-answer he gave earlier.

Whatever, he’s happy about it personally. He gets to talk to them instead about what they did while he was watching the soundcheck and in the M&G.

Since the girls had never been to Columbus, Ohio, they spent the day looking through all the tourist attractions - including this thirty room bookstore.

“It was amazing!” Camila gushes. “Whenever you thought it was going to end, it just kept going. I was afraid of getting lost - Dinah did…”

“Well can you blame me? A thirty room bookstore is just calling to get lost in!” Dinah defends herself.

“That sounds awesome!” Harry says. “You’ll have to show it to me before we leave tomorrow.”

“Deal,” Camila agrees.

Dinah looks at them like they’ve both lost their darn minds. “Y’all can go without me then. I’m not finna go back in there and get lost again. Me and my mom will look at an art gallery or something instead. A place where there _aren’t_ thirty rooms.” Harry and Camila laugh. Dinah is so hilarious.

Just then, the crowd starts screaming and the three of them are inclined to as well. They stand up and see that the opening act has just come out on stage.

“Hi,” the singer says, smiling down at the crowd. “I’m Lauren Jauregui and welcome to the Big Payno World Tour.”

“Oh my gosh!” Harry practically yells so Camila and Dinah can hear him over the other screams in the arena. “My boss, Normani, _loves_ Lauren Jauregui. She has like a proper crush on her. I need to record some videos for her!” He quickly feels around for his camera.

He thinks he hears Dinah loudly whisper “sounds familiar” in Camila’s ear, but he’s too busy focusing on recording videos of Lauren Jauregui for his boss.

Her set is amazing. Harry has so much fun dancing to her album tracks, as well as her two big hits “Back To Me” and “No Way”. He and Camila swear that at one point in the show she straight up winked at Dinah, but she doesn’t believe them.

“Homes, you make no sense,” she shakes her head. “Why would she wink at me? I didn’t even know her music before now.”

“So?” Camila questions. “Maybe she just thinks you’re cuuute.” She makes kissy faces at her, but Dinah just lightly pushes her off.

Eventually Camila and Harry give up reasoning with her for the night, but they will definitely be sure to bring it up to tease her about in the future. After Lauren Jauregui exits the stage, it’s about half an hour to go until Liam comes on, so they all go to the bathroom because the drinks and food they had earlier finally caught up to them.

Several minutes after they get back, the lights go down and Liam charges up on the stage. The girls immediately stand up and squeal their brains out with the rest of the arena. It takes Harry a moment to remember he’s supposed to do the same. He stands and just gives Liam claps, feeling too uncomfortable to do much more than that.

He thinks, even if the M&G thing hadn’t happened, he would still feel too uncomfortable to squeal with the rest of the crowd because he knows Liam more than just as an idol now – or, at least he thought he did…

The beginning of the show is awkward, but throughout it he just focuses on how much fun Camila and Dinah are having, and eventually he starts having fun with them. Because no matter what happens between him and Liam, he will never be able to re-live the first day of seeing his best friends in the flesh again. Why should he waste it feeling sorry for himself? He should instead spend it feeling happy for them – with them.

When the show is over he walks out with the biggest smile on his face, taking a selfie with Camila and Dinah, who are both absolutely out of breath. He thinks Camila’s post concert depression may already be starting based on her expression in the photo, but she still gave a tiny smile just for him. He knows what picture he’s posting literally everywhere online as soon as he gets home tomorrow.

He almost expects one of them to say he didn’t look like he was having as much fun as he should’ve been, or that he looked sad at the beginning or something, but they don’t. Not that night, or the next day when the buzz has (mostly) worn off. They’re still just happy that they got to go to a Liam concert with him – and you know what, he’s happy he got to go to it with them as well.

***

It was easy to ignore the true weight of his situation when he was surrounded by loud music and the bright smiles of his best friends, but lying here alone in his room at 2 AM, his thoughts are too loud to ignore.

Liam kissed him, and that should be a wonderful thing. Just a few months ago this was all he ever wanted. But now he’s not sure anymore. He can’t help but wonder if Liam did that for the cameras, or if maybe he did it because he felt like he _had_ to. Since he knows Harry used to be a fanboy.

Harry shivers at the thought. He hoped Liam would’ve known him better than that by now. He hoped when he asked to kiss Liam’s cheek he would’ve known it was friendly, nothing more and nothing less. He squirms as he decides this is the thought that makes most sense: Liam did it because he felt like he owed it to Harry.

Just then, as if on cue, he receives a text from his phone.

**_LP:_ ** _can I talk to u ?_

Harry takes deep breaths. “Can we talk” is never a good question. Never, not once. Tears in his eyes and trembling fingers, he writes back a response.

**_H:_ ** _I’m sorry that I made you feel like you had to kiss me._

He knows he’ll probably regret sending that in the morning, which is why he mutes his conversation with Liam so he doesn’t have to see his response, or any responses, ever again. He cries softly and turns off his phone completely, going to sleep.

 

 

**Liam**

He stares at the text. He stares and he stares so much that he’s afraid that his eyes will be permanently stuck on the image of this text.

What is Harry talking about? Made him feel like he had to kiss him? Is that what he really thinks? Does he really truly believe Liam kissed him because he felt he had to, instead of because he genuinely wanted to?

He tries to call Harry, thinking that a voice-to-voice conversation is best for this, but is immediately passed onto his voicemail. Liam sighs, knowing that means that his phone is turned off.

Tears start forming in his eyes and he really doesn’t want to wake anyone up – especially Niall, because he doesn’t want Niall to ask what’s wrong (or maybe, secretly, he does) – but he can’t help it. He’s crying.

He’s crying and he’s impossibly worried about Harry right now. What has he done? No, better yet, what is he _going to_ do? Is there anything he _can_ do now? He stuffs his face in the pillow and cries into it, praying silently that he hasn’t lost Harry forever.

***

A day later he’s not feeling any better. He’s still worried and isn’t sure what to do. So he goes to Niall for advice.

“Wow,” Niall breathes, looking up from the text after he shows it to him. “That’s heavy.”

“I know,” Liam says, taking his phone back and trying not to cry again. “Why does he think that? You told me I was in! You told me he would feel the same way!”

“Okay Liam, listen to me,” Niall rubs soothing circles around Liam’s hands. “I know you’re scared and confused, but based on that text he is too. He probably _does_ like you back, but just wasn’t expecting that so fast and doesn’t know what it means.”

“What can I do about that though? He’s not answering my texts or phone calls.” A sniffle escapes his nose.

“Then I guess that only leaves one option.” Niall pauses with a smirk, taking a sip of his morning coffee.

Liam raises his eyebrows, not catching onto the hint.

***

Last night, Liam thought Niall’s idea was absolutely ridiculous. Travelling to Harry’s coffee shop to publicly talk to him face to face when he’s in the middle of the tour? Granted, after tonight he has a one week break, but still. It sounded like a horrible idea.

“The only way he’s going to know for sure you were being honest is if you talk to him face-to-face about it,” Niall had said.

Liam hadn’t believed him, but after tonight, he does.

Tonight was by far the worst concert of Liam’s career. He feels like he really disappointed all the fans who came to see him by being so tense and so removed from the music. He just couldn’t stop thinking about that text and worrying about whether or not Harry was okay.

So now, he opens the door to Niall’s room. He doesn’t even have to say anything. Apparently his face says it all, judging by how Niall nods and immediately motions for him to sit beside him.

“You won’t tell Paddy right?” is the first thing out of Liam’s mouth.

“I haven’t told Paddy anything since 2013,” Niall responds with a wink. The two of them giggle at each other.

“Will you come with me?” Liam asks, playing with Niall’s hand a little bit.

“Of course I’m coming with you,” Niall replies like it’s obvious. “It was my idea first, besides you’re a mess around cute boys.” Liam laughs again, knowing that he speaks the truth. The two of them fall asleep on Niall’s bed planning Operation Get The Boy Back.

***

The plane ride was a semi-long one, but Liam couldn’t sleep. All he could think about is what he was going to say, over and over again. He tried not to because that’s what got him here in the first place, isn’t it? Thinking so much about what he was going to say that he couldn’t say any of it in the end.

Still, when they touched down, Liam didn’t falter. He wasn’t going to let his anxiety ruin him this time. He was here with a purpose.

Now, as he drives his rental car into the parking lot of Harry’s coffee shop, he takes a deep breath. There’s no turning around or re-starting the GPS now. With Niall by his side, he starts toward the door.

 

 

**Harry**

Tripping over himself, having to re-make more drinks than usual, and earning concerned stares from his boss Normani, it’s safe to say this has not been Harry’s day. Neither was yesterday. Or the night before.

The night before… Harry sighs as he pours the coffee and thinks, for what must be the fiftieth time today alone, that that was a dumb text to send. You’re not supposed to send those texts, even if you believe they’re true, like he still does. You’re supposed to turn it off and go to bed.

“Harry!” Normani calls. Just then he realizes he over poured the coffee… again. He sighs angrily at himself.

“Great,” he mutters. “Just great.”

She walks over to him slowly but surely and says calmly, “Harry I think it’s best if I send you home early.”

He frowns at that, even though he knew it was coming. He remembers how this all started, how she had been planning to send him home early when he'd stayed up too late listening to Liam's album. It feels like a lifetime ago, before he knew Liam personally. He needs to stop letting Liam distract him from his work.

He nods, taking his hands off the overflowing coffee and goes to the register to sign out. “Right, thank you Normani. Have a great da-”

He stops in his tracks as he looks up and sees Liam. He tries to run to the back to clock out there instead, but his feet won’t move. Liam always had a way of keeping him in place. And once again, even though there’s a superstar in their shop, no one says a word. No one tries to approach him.

“Uh hi,” Harry tries, feeling the sniffles coming on even though he tries to stop them. “Louis can get you over there at the other register.” He points with a trembling hand, but he already knows Liam’s not going to move.

“I’m not in the mood for coffee,” Liam tells him.

“Oh…” Harry says awkwardly. “Well we have some nice teas, or some pastries if you’re hun-”

“Harry, stop it,” Liam interrupts. Harry does as he’s told, only because he can’t find any other way to avoid this conversation. He starts crying softly, and Liam is looking at him with such a concerned face.

“Do you really think I kissed you because it was a game? Because I thought I owed it to you?” Liam asks honestly. A few customers turn around at that, but Harry can’t focus on anything except for Liam’s eyes. They’re honest, kind, concerned. “I wanted to tell you so many things at that Meet and Greet, but I couldn’t.”

He takes Harry’s hand, which is still trembling. “I kissed you because I thought actions would speak louder than words.” He now looks like he’s about to start crying too. All Harry trusts himself to do is listen. “But that failed, so I’m trying the words thing again.”

Liam reaches down into his bag and pulls out… a coffee mug with hearts on it. An inhuman noise escapes Harry’s lips. “Harry Styles, I really like you. And if I haven’t messed it all up, I would like to date you. Would you be my boyfriend?”

Harry explodes into a fit of sobs and he doesn’t care if he’s disturbing the customers as he races behind the register and brings Liam in for a big hug and, this time, a real long kiss. “Yes, yes, yes.”

All these past three days he spent worrying… they were all for nothing. Liam likes him. And he likes him back. He pinches himself to make sure he’s not in a dream. He’s not. This is real, and it’s the best reality he could ever ask for.


	4. Epilogue

Several months later, Liam’s tour has ended. Niall and Paddy didn’t even have to ask what he wanted to do next – they already knew.

“And it’s clear,” the TV announcer says. “From these pictures, that pop superstar Liam Payne is finally dating this Harry Styles fellow. Even though he has yet to comment on the photos, I don’t know anyone who kisses that deeply without being in love, or at the very least being-”

Liam turns off the TV, laughing with Harry as the two snuggle closer together.

“So,” Harry says into a fake microphone in his best theatrical voice. “Is it true that you, pop superstar Liam Payne, are dating Harry Styles?” He puts his hand up to Liam’s mouth.

“Um, I’m afraid I cannot comment on that at this time, but I will let you know,” he responds in an equally theatrical voice, then the two collapse in laughter again.

Harry looks down at Liam’s body in his arms and just shakes his head. “Wow. I can’t believe this all started because you walked into my coffee shop one day.”

“You’re such a sap,” Liam responds, but he’s smiling that wide smile and Harry can see a bit of a blush creeping up on his cheeks, no matter how much he tries to hide it.

“Takes one to know one,” Harry teases.

“Yeah you’re right,” Liam nods, not even denying it. He removes himself from Harry’s arms for a moment, sitting up to drink a sip of coffee. He thinks for a moment before laying back down. “Wanna fall asleep cuddling?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” Liam smiles, opening his arms for Harry to get into, and the two of them do just that. Even with the coffee in both of their systems, they fall asleep easily, relaxing into the touch of the other boy.

Harry really can’t believe it. Just a few months ago – maybe even a year ago at this point, he’s lost track really – he was a fanboy having daydreams of this moment. Now it’s really happening – he’s really dating Liam Payne, the guy he looked up to for so many years.

Even though he doesn’t see himself as a fanboy anymore, it’s still a hard thing to wrap his head around. He’s probably going to need a few years to truly get used to it – hopefully he will get that time.

As he listens to the sound of Liam’s breath and heartbeat, he thanks the universe that he is here right now, and that Liam is here beside him. He hopes that no matter what troubles – or world tours – come their way in the future, they will always find their way back to each other in the end. Something is telling him they will though.

He smiles, passing into R.E.M. sleep and dreaming of a future wedding with Liam. He hopes this dream comes true.


End file.
